


Tick Tock (Timebomb)

by Half_SubmergedinPurgatory



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Infinity War, Infinity War spoilers, IronStrange is mostly implied!, Lady Death Takes Care of her Merchant, M/M, Pepper and Tony stayed broken up in this one, past Tony Stark/Pepper Potts - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 09:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14565834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Half_SubmergedinPurgatory/pseuds/Half_SubmergedinPurgatory
Summary: Dr Strange shows Tony all their battles with Thanos and finds the one variable that makes a difference - Tony never dies.





	Tick Tock (Timebomb)

Titan was desolate. It was the only coherent thought Tony could squeeze through the panic flooding his brain ( _his kid was here, some fools from space so much younger than himself, so many people depending on him not to fuck this up-_ ). Desolate was the only word that could accurately describe the place.  
  
Not empty, but full of ghosts. Almost empty. Should be empty ( ** _should be dead_** ).   
  
The panic is rising. His temples throb and the skin of his face feels too tight. A lancing pain is beginning to shoot through the back of his skull - a goddamn stress migraine. The absolute last thing he needed right now.  
  
What did it matter, anyway? He was about to be in a lot more pain soon. That or dead ( _not helping with the panic there, Tony_ ).   
  
“Mr Stark...?”   
  
The ( _his, how on Earth did he wind up with a-_ ) kid asks, tentatively placing a hand on his arm, and Tony realizes he’s been vigorously grinding his knuckles into his temples ( _trying to force away the tension there despite knowing it's hopeless_ ).  
  
“I’m alright, Spidey. Worry about yourself.”  
  
Tony tells him, unable to meet Peter’s eyes ( _to see the determination there and to be forced by his own messed up brain to imagine it slipping away-_ ).  
  
“You might be, but I’m not so sure he is...”  
  
Peter whispers to him and, despite the dread filling him, Tony turns to follow his pointing finger. Dr Strange is sitting on a rocky outcrop, a glazed look in his eyes and a tense set to his shoulders and jaw.  
  
He looked like he was zoning, badly. A new anxiety clutched Tony's chest, tearing away his previous crippling fear of the future to replace it with something much more immediate. Thankfully, Tony has always been able to deal ( _maybe not well_ ) with immediate issues.  
  
“Hey,”   
  
He murmured, kneeling just out of Strange’s personal space ( _he wasn't sure how much violence the doctor had seen in his days as a...wizard, magician, whatever, but whatever was going on here had the particular flavour of PTSD to it and Tony didn't want to get smoked by magic. That or set Strange off worse_ ),  
  
“It’s ok. We’re ok.”   
  
Strange fixated on his face for a moment. There’s a flicker of awe, of something fond and lonely, too ( _things Tony hasn't inspired in this man before. There's no reason somebody like Strange should like him, let alone be in awe of him_ ). Tony sees Strange’s mouth start to form the syllables of his name. Then...then it’s like all the lights go out, and Strange reminds Tony of Titan.  
  
Desolate.   
  
“Don’t worry, Tony, I’m alright.”   
  
His scarred hands reach out and Tony clasps them immediately, body not betraying the way his mind is whirling over the implications of going from 'Stark' to 'Tony' ( _over Strange knowing he was worried, knowing he needed contact to be reassured_ ) in the span of one PTSD episode.  
  
“I was simply...looking through time. At yo- our futures.”  
  
( _Or the span of one...future episode, Tony guesses_ )  
  
Strange looks abruptly pained and Tony’s fingers tighten around his, preventing them from trembling ( _he’d noticed the way Strange had concealed the tremors in front of the alien torturing him, keeping him hands away from his face, as if they revealed more weakness than screaming or begging ever could_ ). It doesn’t wipe the pain from Strange’s face, but it does replace some of it with...something new.  
  
( _An expression Pepper used to look at him with. One where she knew Tony was going to go fight and she didn’t want him to, but loved him all the same for it. He knew what it meant from her, but from a virtual stranger...?_ )  
  
“I saw them all. Every single option, every plan, every attempt.”  
  
Strange tells him. Tony’s fear of the future ( _funny that - a futurist always scared of the future_ ) was quickly returning to him. Before it could overcome him, he quickly asked,   
  
“Is there one we win? Strange, tell me-“  
  
Tony wasn’t sure how to finish that. Tell me what you saw? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what put that expression on Strange’s face, wasn’t sure he wanted to come to know another friend in this situation, another person he could lose. Tell me what the future holds? Tony didn’t think he wanted those details either ( _not when they clearly weren’t happy ones_ ).  
  
Another Pepper expression crosses Strange’s face - the one she had when she told him goodbye. That she still loved him but couldn’t be with him ( _because being Iron Man was always something he had to do alone_ ).  
  
Strange frees his trembling fingers from Tony and pulls his amulet ( _the time stone_ ) from around his neck. Tony is frozen as Strange slowly places it around his.  
  
It’s so much heavier than he thought it would be.  
  
There’s a glimmer of green in the corner of his eye, one that rolls from Strange’s hands into the necklace, and then-  
  
And then-  
  
All the times they fought Thanos hit Tiny at once. Millions of bloody battles passing him at the speed of light, incomprehensible except for what lay at the crux of them, a single variable out of place.  
  
The only thing that could create change, the only thing that made them win ( _if t **hat** could be called winning_ ) was...  
  
“Me?”  
  
Tony whispered, clutching the amulet so tightly the delicate metalwork was imprinted into his skin. Strange closed his eyes, nodding once,  
  
“You.”  
  
Then Strange folded his hands into his cape ( _as if he were keeping them from reaching out and taking back what was rightly his, or maybe to keep them from revealing any more about how he was feeling, something odd and closed-off lurking just beneath the surface_ ). He wasn’t going to take back the necklace.  
  
The time stone was the symbol of the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange had made an oath to protect it. Giving it to Tony meant...  
  
**No.**  
  
No that couldn't be possible, but Tony had seen it, had spotted a flicker of it in the future.

Strange wanted Tony to take his place - he thought it was the only way to save the world ( _Tony **didn’t know anything** about magic, didn’t understand it at all, didn’t want to - but he’d seen flickers of a future where Strange’s hands didn’t tremble and Tony’s were golden and he...and they...this future wouldn’t be that one, so it didn’t matter. Because..._ ).  
  
Strange was going to have to die to make that happen ( _for balance - the word forms in Tony's mind unprompted like he's heard it a thousand times before. Tony doesn’t think his life is worth Strange’s, but he can’t argue, not when Strange holds all the cards and thinks this is the answer_ ). Only one person is meant to hold power over time. One person is supposed to be responsible for the fate of the world.  
  
It's a stupid system. Tony hates it.  
  
“We’re a team-“  
  
Tony tries, voice cracking on ‘team’ because he barely knows Strange but he DOES - Strange at least knows him ( _another Pepper expression on his face, one that always showed up when Tony kept trying to fix something that was already broken and damn it, damn it does Tony always have to lose?_ ).   
  
“Thanos is going to have to think he won.”  
  
Strange argues, resignation heavy in his voice.   
  
“He could think he killed you, we could make it look-“  
  
Tony says, but Strange clamps a hand over his mouth, then softly drags his thumb over the trail of wetness on Tony's cheeks.  
  
“Thanos is going to have to win. Actually win - just for a moment.”  
  
Strange says. This time, his words sound final ( _not just resigned, not just sad, not just sorry, so sorry- why did Tony feel like Strange had apologized to him before?_ ). They **are** final - Tony knows this is how it has to go, knows every single trick they tried didn’t work. Knows he has to be the one to survive.    
  
He stays huddled with Strange in the outcrop for as long as he can. The silence they share is fraught with something more - tense with expressions and aborted movements Tony has only ever seen on a lover before.  
  
Finally, they can’t wait anymore.  
  
Tony gives the others a plan, one from a world where it all went wrong, but not as wrong as it could have. He can’t tell them anything. He doesn’t have the strength to tell them what’s coming ( _that it can’t be prevented_ ).   
  
They fight.  
  
They lose.  
  
Tony dangles on the end of his own blade as Thanos reaches out with his other hand, grabbing Strange by the neck. There’s a snap - both of the chain and of bone.  
  
A snap. Tony has to wait for a snap.  
  
Just one more ( _that sound was going to feature in his nightmares for years_ ).   
  
The stone goes into the gauntlet ( _a spell waiting for a single motion, a single sound_ ). Thanos disappears as if he were never there, leaving Tony and his remaining friends alone on Titan to await the end.  
  
Only it won’t be the end for Tony.  
  
( _Strange in a future that never was stares at him, clutching at his armour and speaking fervently past the blood dripping from his mouth: “No matter how many times we lose, Tony, you’re always left alive.”_ )  
  
( _Strange in many futures, so many miserable futures, tells him: “Thanos rolls the dice and half the world randomly dies. That never changes. It’s never quite the same arrangement of people, though some people are unlucky more often than others.”_ )  
  
( _Strange in his own timeline whispers, “Except you.” Like an apology_ )  
  
( _Rhodey told him once, drunk and laughing but with the laughter not quite reaching his eyes, hands clenched tight in Tony’s own after an Iron Man mission gone wrong: “Every single roll of the dice - you’re snake eyes. A faulty gamble. You never DIE, Tones._ ”)  
  
( _Tony feels the ghost of a hand against his back, skeletal, chilly_ )  
  
( _He hears a scoff_ )  
  
( ** _“Balance?”_** )  
  
( ** _“What does a titan know of BALANCE? Or a man, for that matter?”_** )  
  
( ** _“As if random chance could do what I do. Death is the great equalizer.”_** )  
  
( _Tony rolls the dice_ )  
  
Snap ( _one motion, one sound_ ).  
  
Half of the world disappears. Tony remains alive - Tony **always** remains alive.  
  
He always has more time ( _more than ever now that he feels a new weight in his clenched fist, delicate metalwork digging itself into the skin_ ).  
  
Snap ( _one motion, one sound_ ).  
  
The world rewinds.

**Author's Note:**

> Tony actually does become Sorcerer Supreme in the comics at least once, which is pretty neat IMO? It actually suits him really well. Also does anyone else feel like Strange's hands reveal more about him than his words ever will?


End file.
